Through the years, I’ve become the voice inside friends’ heads reminding them to run an automatic backup, ensure their virus protection is current, and create separate logins for kids to ensure their computers remain in top shape. Complaints about sluggish machines and urgent texts from friends freaking out about the appearance of the Blue Screen of Death are opportunities to educate friends about how to best care for their machines and empower even the least tech savvy to perform basic maintenance on the machines they can’t live without.

Educating and empowering consumers is a goal of StaplesEasyTech Total Support technicians. While a year or two of their Total Support package allows you to hand over your machine to an experienced person who can help you protect, detect, maintain, and upgrade your machine, it can also be a great time to work with them so you can learn how to keep your computer in top shape between visits.

Last month I had the opportunity to visit for the chance to experience their EasyTech Total Support. While there, I met Eddie, the experienced, knowledgeable and incredibly friendly Sales and Service Manager at my local store who has a long history in the IT field having worked in tech support for another big box store. As he was working on setting up my Lenovo A520, I asked him what he wished consumers knew about taking care of their computers and he provided these four tips.

Eddie from Staples EasyTech Total Support shares 4 tips about how consumers can better maintain their computers:

1. Back up your data.

If you’ve ever seen the Blue Screen of Death on your PC or gotten an endless spinning rainbow wheel on your Mac, you know something is seriously wrong with your machine. Maybe you restart it or maybe you just wait it out but chances are that whatever is wrong, won’t quickly resolve itself. Since there’s always a chance of lost data, an automatic backup that runs behind the scenes is the best way to ensure that your data is safeguarded and can be easily installed when the Blue Screen or rainbow wheel disappear. It really doesn’t matter if you back up to the cloud or to an external backup drive. What matters most is that you have a copy of your data, including precious digital versions of family photos.

Even if the warnings are annoying, they’re really there for a reason. Pay attention to them and let your antivirus protection scan your machine to save you time and heartache later. Eddie also recommends letting antivirus software scan downloads to ensure that files are safe for your machine.

3. Parents should create an administrative account for themselves with separate accounts for kids.

“So many times kids are the reasons for computer viruses,” Eddie explained. Even the most tech savvy kids can be duped into clicking on bad links that will install viruses. Eddie says creating accounts for each child can help contain the virus for easier removal. He also recommends teaching kids to avoid clicking on things they aren’t familiar with.

4. Teach kids to be wary of opening suspicious emails from known and unknown sources.

We may be wary of emails from those we don’t know but sometimes even our close friends and family members’ accounts can be hacked. Most of us have probably gotten desperate requests for money from those we know saying passports and cash were stolen during an overseas trip but our kids can get these emails too. Have a conversation about sharing passwords, changing passwords, and what it means when an account is hacked to give them a better understanding of why such emails may come from those they know.

Staples EasyTech Total Support is designed to provide complete technology solutions for your home or office to keep your computers running smoothly. Eddie recommends bringing your machine in every six months for a tune up by one of their trained technicians, or sooner if you think that something is wrong. He also suggests keeping your receipt for your EasyTech Total Support service but if you can’t find it, they can always perform a store lookup to pull up your account when you visit your local Staples store.

In addition to being compensated to share my experiences, I received a Staples gift card to facilitate the purchase of Staples EasyTech Total Support but all opinions are based on my personal in-store experiences.

Helpful tips! I especially like the idea of having separate accounts for my kids when they get older. Thanks!

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Welcome! I'm Leticia, founder of Tech Savvy Mama and a DC Metro area dwelling mom of two middle schoolers. With a background in classroom technology integration and school administration, I now use everything I learned from teaching children, teachers, and principals as a professional blogger, social media strategist, and freelance writer. Read more...